I have recently bought a small farm and you are one of the people whose writing in some way influenced this decision. So far I'm enjoying the changes in my life that this has brought about: increased amounts of physical labor, feeling closer to nature, more interaction with neighbors, picking and taking care of fruit, etc. But it's only been one month; we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck! : )
Gunnar, you have the ability to put into words the most important conclusions. They are totally in line with my own thoughts but I don't have the skills to put them into words like you. Thank you!
A number of years ago I went to a seminar. One of the slides presented on the screen was the ecological planetary footprints of some countries. The only country close to one planet living per capita was India. Assuming that the calculation of per capita resource use for one planet living is accurate even with best practices and equitable distribution it represents a huge change of every day life for a typical European or North American. Even Costa Rica is over two planets if everyone lived like a Costa Rican.
I emailed a British organization that promotes one planet living - https://www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living If they had a description in concrete terms what Britain would be like in terms of industry, transportation, housing , agriculture, living standards, energy use and production in a one planet society. They didn’t know.
Yesterday I delivered some Sunflower meal from our oil pressing to my Amish friends. They had gathered together the neighbouring farms and were cutting corn stalks for silage using a horse drawn ground driven machine. I arrived just at break time and the gals had brought cookies and coffee. It was wonderful to see the community working together and would continue going from one farm to another until all has been harvested. This particular farm was very impressive with the many changes they have made to become self sufficient supporting many generations and working with other farms to get the work done. -mat
Thank you Gunnar for this. Plenty that has made me think, especially non-reformist reforms and the work less-consume less paradigm. It reminds me of David Fleming's intentional waste to deal with excess capital i.e. older societies would build a church, have a feast to deal with excess capital rather than reinvest it in further production which had the potential to be toxic and community breaking.
Haven't read Flemmings, thanks for lead. James Suzman is to some extent into this in his book Work also, although his focus is labour and not capital, but they are more or less the same....
I have recently bought a small farm and you are one of the people whose writing in some way influenced this decision. So far I'm enjoying the changes in my life that this has brought about: increased amounts of physical labor, feeling closer to nature, more interaction with neighbors, picking and taking care of fruit, etc. But it's only been one month; we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck! : )
Gunnar, you have the ability to put into words the most important conclusions. They are totally in line with my own thoughts but I don't have the skills to put them into words like you. Thank you!
A number of years ago I went to a seminar. One of the slides presented on the screen was the ecological planetary footprints of some countries. The only country close to one planet living per capita was India. Assuming that the calculation of per capita resource use for one planet living is accurate even with best practices and equitable distribution it represents a huge change of every day life for a typical European or North American. Even Costa Rica is over two planets if everyone lived like a Costa Rican.
I emailed a British organization that promotes one planet living - https://www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living If they had a description in concrete terms what Britain would be like in terms of industry, transportation, housing , agriculture, living standards, energy use and production in a one planet society. They didn’t know.
Yesterday I delivered some Sunflower meal from our oil pressing to my Amish friends. They had gathered together the neighbouring farms and were cutting corn stalks for silage using a horse drawn ground driven machine. I arrived just at break time and the gals had brought cookies and coffee. It was wonderful to see the community working together and would continue going from one farm to another until all has been harvested. This particular farm was very impressive with the many changes they have made to become self sufficient supporting many generations and working with other farms to get the work done. -mat
Thank you Gunnar for this. Plenty that has made me think, especially non-reformist reforms and the work less-consume less paradigm. It reminds me of David Fleming's intentional waste to deal with excess capital i.e. older societies would build a church, have a feast to deal with excess capital rather than reinvest it in further production which had the potential to be toxic and community breaking.
Haven't read Flemmings, thanks for lead. James Suzman is to some extent into this in his book Work also, although his focus is labour and not capital, but they are more or less the same....
Thank you for your work!
Your post reminded me of Eisuke Ishikawa's book, which I link to below.
Although the practice was intensive, it was cyclical and deeply wise.
I recommend it.
https://www.japanfs.org/en/edo/index.html